Recapping Week 4 Of Chicago Marathon Training

It would have been cool if I had a Fantastic Four mug for the end of Week 4 of training but alas, Captain America will have to do.

One of my favorite parts of my Saturday morning long runs is when they’re over.

Not because I don’t like them - I enjoy them very much.

But I also enjoy my post-long run routine.

First of all, it’s a big feeling of accomplishment that I like, being done with the run and being able to enjoy the rest of the day.

But on a nice summer day after my long run I sit out on the back deck and have my breakfast (or my lunch, depending on when I do the run), I put my feet up, have my coffee, and I do the crossword or some other game on my phone.

It’s really a great excuse to just relax.

Here’s what I’m recovering from this week:

Monday: 3 miles at 11:26/mi pace

Tuesday: 7.16 mile interval workout, 1:21:19 total time

Wednesday: 15 minutes of lower body in the morning (I’ll explain why this looks disjointed below)

Thursday: In the morning I did 10 minutes of core and 10 minutes upper body, then in the evening a 3.05 mile run at 9:51/mi pace

Friday: 20 minute strength for runners workout

Saturday: 5 minutes of core, and then 7 miles at 11:27/mi

The long run this week was scheduled to be just 6 miles - I ran 7 because I ran part of the workout with a friend and felt good enough to add another mile.

I feel like it should have been more, but I have been really ramping this one up slowly. My legs and feet and hips feel great and I haven’t felt any of the aches and pains I generally get during marathon training, so that’s a good sign.

This was a drop-down week in terms of long run, but the mid-week interval runs are steadily increasing, so I think I’m doing appropriate work, while staying healthy. All of that feels like I’m on the right track. (The weekly total is below - it was only slightly down from last week’s total.)

Next week jumps to 10 miles, and it’ll be nice to get into the double digits. I’ll feel like marathon training is really taking off then.

But - again - I’m still doing the work now.

This week’s interval run was a little weird - my watch didn’t show that I got into any orange or red zones - the two highest exertion zones - which it has always done on those interval runs. Tuesday morning, when I ran, was actually kind of cold so I guess that had an impact. Because I ran the intervals the same way I have been.

I also felt like I did some pretty good strength workouts this week too - even though I shortened one because I overslept Wednesday morning. (That was a near-disaster. I woke up early enough to squeeze in the workout…but I almost could have slept past when I should have been at work. It was lucky I looked at my watch when I did.)

The Friday one was good - I always like the strength for runners classes Peloton has.

Thursday I ran with the running club - we ran in Natick and followed a different running club through their course, but I kept up with the people towards the front because I didn’t want to get lost. So that was a faster pace than I otherwise might have run.

4 weeks done. Things take a step forward next week, in my opinion.

Total Miles for Week 4: 20.21

Total Miles Overall: 81.96